Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Lottery for Marijuana Retail Licenses

Eyes are on the Washington
state Liquor Control Board (LCB) this week as applicants await the
result of the lottery to determine the recipients of licenses to operate
recreational marijuana retail stores. The process of
selection will be an independent, double-blind lottery to produce
ordered lists of applicants for each jurisdiction, for a total of 334 stores
across the state. The lottery will be performed by the Social and
Economic Sciences Research Center of Washington State University and the
accounting firm Kraght-Snell of Seattle, who currently oversees
Washington’s state lottery.

2,171 applications for retail
licenses were submitted to the LCB in late 2013. Starting in late
February, applicants were asked to complete pre-qualifying packets,
providing five pieces of information: applicants’ personal criminal
history, over-21 age verification, proof of Washington state residency,
proof of Washington state business licensure, and a leasing agreement
for a location address outside the 1,000’ buffer on sensitive areas. In
March, LCB deputy director Randy Simmons reportedly stated that more
than 500 applicants had failed to submit the information within the
timeframe allotted. Of the applicants who did submit by the deadline,
roughly 20-50 percent did not provide the agency with all of the
required information. Finally, this week we learned that
an undisclosed number of applicants with completed packets have been
administratively withdrawn from the lottery process, due to incomplete
packets or failure to meet one or more requirements. Despite much public
conjecture, no firm number has been released for the number of
applicants who will participate in the lottery this week. We estimate
that 800-1,250 applicants are qualified to participate at this time.

The state will release the results of the lottery on May 2, at www.liq.wa.gov.
All pre-screened applicants will be notified of their rank in the
jurisdiction for their location. Licenses will be issued in batches of
10-20 in the first week of July, beginning with the most populous
areas. The lottery will produce ranked lists for jurisdictions under
bans or moratoria, which will be used to issue licenses when permitted.
In cases where applicants are found to be ineligible for the retail
license, they will cede their position on the list to the next
qualifying applicant. State officials expect the first retail stores to
open in July 2014, but many anticipate that supply will be limited until
a larger number of producers and processors are licensed and
operational.